Spotlight On: Pastor Harold Pierce Jr. and Big Pine Independent Pentecostal Church

Spotlight On… Pastor Harold Pierce Jr. from Big Pine Independent Pentecostal Church

As part of our new series, we are interviewing people of interest in the community who are having a positive impact on the lives around them.

If you’ve ever driven through Big Pine, you may have seen the small church located at 128 Main Street near Carroll’s Market.  It is led by Pastor Harold Pierce Jr., who was born in Big Pine and has lived here most of his life.

Pastor Harold was kind enough to answer some of our questions.

Pastor, can you tell me a little bit about your history in Big Pine?

I was born at home to Harold L. Pierce Sr. and Jean S. Pierce, both members of the Big Pine Paiute Tribe of the Owens Valley, a federally recognized tribe in California, and am a current resident of the beautiful productive Big Pine community.  I grew up having been educated at the Big Pine School with family and close friends.

What is the history of your church, and how long has it been in existence?

Growing up in a very strict and patriotic conservative American Judeo-Christian home and regularly attending the Foursquare Indian Mission in Bishop, California, it was dedicated as an expression of my parents’ faith to also raise a child to serve God. So I grew up in a very active church and that is all I’ve known my whole life. I believe I was predestined to become an ordained minister granted holy orders and am blessed to be in service to God.

Having said that, our church started out as a cell group that soon outgrew our meeting place with encouragement and community support.  We eventually agreed to organize and establish a church by leasing a commercial building that could serve the greater Big Pine community.  We saved up our pennies through donations and fundraising and established our church in Big Pine soon after in 2016.

What would you say is the mission and core values of the church?  And how do you plan on fulfilling that mission?

It is the presentation of Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit with the view that people will come and trust Jesus as Savior and Lord and serve him in the fellowship of the church through evangelism, and it is the responsibility of every church member to share his/her faith after conversion. We seek to honor God by maintaining a high standard of excellence in all our ministries and activities.

What denomination or religious affiliation does your church belong to?  And can you explain to me a little bit about that denomination?

Pentecostalism shares values with Christian fundamentalist beliefs that the status of the Bible as the inerrant word of God is a very energetic and dynamic movement of renewal and revival. Its members believe we are driven by the importance of the power of God by immersing our souls in the Holy Spirit which gives the believer the strength to live a true and holy Christian life.

What type of worship services or religious gatherings do you have, and when are they held?

Worship is a full-body participatory engagement with God, manifesting the presence as an embodied encounter with the Holy Spirit.

Our services are held Sundays at 11 am, Wednesdays at 10 am and Thursdays at 7 pm.

A special thank you to Pastor Harold for answering our questions!

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Read more “Spotlight On” here.

Tanner Rush